The Book and the Archive in the History of Science

In recent years, the history of archives has opened up rich possibilities for understanding early modern science and medicine in material terms. Yet two strands of inquiry, vital to understanding the development of science and medicine as "paper knowledge," have been left largely unpursued: the archiving of personal papers, as distinct from the formation of institutional archives; and the ways in which printed books and archival papers functioned in relation to each other. This essay brings these two strands to the forefront, considering in particular books published posthumously from the notes and correspondence left behind by Nicholas Culpeper, a popular mid-seventeenth-century English vernacular medical author, and John Ray, naturalist and Fellow of the Royal Society. Culpeper's and Ray's cases illustrate, in particular, the central role of women in preserving, circulating, and certifying the authenticity of medical and scientific papers and of any books published posthumously from them.